Title:   I Have a Dream

Author: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. presented by Kadir Nelson

Publishing Company:  Schwartz and Wade

Copyright Dates: October 2012

# of pages:  40

Genre/category:  nonfiction

          I chose this book because I was searching for a good nonfiction book to add to my library.  I have chosen to use this experience to expand my personal library to include books of many genres.  I didn’t realize that I was lacking books in certain areas of literature until we began this assignment; that is a problem I intend to remedy as soon as possible.  However, the specific reason for this book choice is simply my child.  As I was scrolling through scholastic’s nonfiction books my son stopped me and asked who was this man was on the cover.  I will not lie to you; I was surprised that he did not recognize MLK jr., but I guess that is my fault for not making sure that he knew who this man was and still is to America’s history.  This book is about the famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.  Kadir Nelson beautifully illustrates this book to match and describe the scenes in Washington D.C. while Dr. King was delivering his speech.  On the back pages the speech is written out in it’s entirety and a CD is included.  I LOVE the CD; children can listen to the speech in MLK jr’s own words and voice.  Truly a wonderful book; it is very historically accurate in look and words.   

          The artist in this book is the same person who is presenting the story.  Kadir Nelson does a wonderful job of re-creating the scenes of that day.  He uses oil painting, my favorite, to create the illustrations.   The artwork is set in a traditional, formal type of setting.  Most of the words are on the opposite side of the page from the illustrations.    The colors are very realistic and vibrant to look at; they really give the reader a sense of what it was like that day.

          This book would be appropriate for readers of all ages.  Anyone can benefit from reading and hearing the speech that had such a huge impact on the civil rights movement.  Even today, the speech given by MLK jr. is powerful and meaningful.  This book would be great to use during black history month. Even more than that, it should be used to remind students that we are equal and deserve to be treating as such.  This book would be great in a history lesson about civil rights.  It would work well in a map unit documenting historical places.  It would be wonderful for sharing reasons for not bullying with students.  At this time the book has not won any awards, but has received many excellent editor reviews.  I feel like it will probably win an award at some time in the future.